Illinois State University

Both my parents graduated from ISU in the mid to late 70’s.

Ilinois state

College was in my future

College was always part of the “what I want to be” conversation growing up. It was sort of understood Tony and I would attend college. We of course had our own say, but it never seemed like something I “wouldn’t” do. I always new I would go to college.

One persuasive argument in favor of going to college was that both my parents had. We visited their campus sometime in the mid 1990’s, 1995 or so. I was 11-13 years old.

Road trip to Chicago, ISU

My family flew to North Carolina (or was it Tennessee?), and we rented a car. Driving west, we stopped in Ohio, indiana, and finally made our way to Chicago.

My entire family was born in Chicago, IL. By entire, I mean every person I’ve ever known as family, including parents, my brother, grand parents, aunts, uncles and cousins. Even most of the in laws are Chicago born.

Going to Chicago was always a ritualistic thing for me. It was my home, I always thought, even though I had been in Florida most of my life (since age 5, 1985). Something about being born in Chicago made me believe I was from there.

No recall on where we stayed or what we did exactly, minus the ISU trip; we had been visiting Chicago on and off for about 10 years at that point, mostly for vacations and a wedding or two. I do recall riding in an elevator with Greg Allman on one trip, but that was around 97 at the four seasons hotel across from the house of blues, chicago. Second set era, with warren and dickey. I had no idea who he was until my mom told me. Also, he had his Greg Allman hall of fame blues jacket on, which was kind of a giveaway.

The University proper

The university itself is located in Normal, IL, which is southwest of Chicago, between Joliet and Springfield. It was November, which for a Florida boy like myself means its colder outside than I’ve ever had to expereince.

We drove into Normal on a weekday morning. I remember it was a weekday as there were classes going on all over the place. The city of normal, if I recall correctly, is dominated by the campus. Lots of brick buildings, dorms with the window a/c units, an ROTC center, and a main drag of campus which housed the bookstore, coffee shops, and other retail mainstays.

Valuable Lessons

Freedom to walk

I learned a gem of campus edict that day from my dad. Him and I were wandering around campus and it was getting a bit to cold for our liking. He decided we “cut through” a random class building, which to me was foreign and against the rules. In my school experiences, which mostly included middle school and below, one was not allowed to just start cutting through random buildings without due cause. That was a sure fire ticket to get in trouble, which at that age (for some reason), I held in a high regard and tried to avoid at all costs.

But, as I learned, college equals freedom to do what ever the hell you want, as long as you don’t destroy/hurt anything. My hesitation was quickly superseded by my dad’s pulling me in and saying “come on” in an aggressive tone, as he had a tendency to do.

It was warm in there; I remember it was the ROTC building, and there was no outlet on the other side. We basically walked in a circle and found ourselves outside again, much to my dad’s dismay. But it was a lesson that stuck with me; I utilized this rule of “cut through” thing in almost every university I’d visit after. Just pretend like your a student, he told me, which was ridiculous as I was like 13, but I new what he meant.

Cheating the parking service

Another interesting concept was one of parking attendants/enforcement. In Sarasota, Fl, meter maids and parking folk had alluded me somehow. I had seen them on TV, but never in person. Well at ISU, a woman (a cop) would walk up and down the main street and draw lines on peoples tires. Using chalk, she would draw half on a car tire and half on the street, in one continuous motion.

I inquired what the hell this was all about. The parking spaces were 30 minute spaces. She would walk by, mark the lines, and then comeback in 30 minutes. If the lines were still continous, a ticket would be warrented.

I found this system sort of ingenious. I also tried to figure out how to beat it. I mean, all one had to do was break the continuity of the chalk line, and no ticket was allowed, right? So moving my car back 5 feet, and then forward 4 feet, would do the trick? I could also just dump water on the chalk line, right? My parents fielded these questions for about 5 seconds before ignoring me, haha.

ISU and my family

ISU is traditionally a teachers school, which means its a mediocre school. For some strange reason, the task of educating educators goes to the schools that are not that hard to get into, and don’t challenge their students that much, and produce a large amount of graduates who aren’t necessarily prepared to work in a classroom. USF is like this as well. Never understood why teachers aren’t the most respected, hardest to become jobs out there.

Parents

My mom and dad did not get teaching degrees from ISU. My dad did eventually become a teacher though, many years later after I’d left for college. I think my dad bounced around alot as a student; I believe he attended several colleges, worked for General Mills, where my grandfather worked, and sort of never got into it like I did. Something to get through, I think he approached it as.

My mom lived in the dorm there, I remember hearing about that. I also remember that my parents officially “met” at ISU, but that official story has broken down so much upon my questioning, I just laugh when they speak in the official story way. I honestly don’t know what the deal was with my parents and their pre-marriage relationship.

My family later attended a ISU football game in Orlando, and we sat on the ISU side. Most notably, Dante Culpepper was the QB for UCF, and I have sort of been a fan of his since. This was two years or so later, in 1997-1998. UCF won, but we made a sign rooting for the redbirds and we got on the front cover of the ISU alumni newsletter. BFD, I remember thinking at the time.

Extended Family

My cousin’s Pat and Colleen (my age) attended ISU, as well as my cousin chris (will start this fall). Pat studied rehab counseling. Colleen is there now, in a PhD program for audiology. She never struck me as the PhD type, and to be honest I’m a little jealous as I wanted to be the first one in our family to earn a PhD. Good for her, I’m glad she’s doing it, and not just marrying some idiot frat boy like many girls do.

Conclusions

ISU never was a school I wanted to go to. I think it’s alot like USF though, a school I’ve grown to love. I would like to re-visit the area someday, to party down and list some of the good party spots.